2007 Soybean Genetics Committee Annual Meeting
19 February 2007
Sheraton Westport, Maryland Heights (St. Louis), MO
Committee Members:
Grover Shannon (2006 Chair; Univ. of Missouri, Portageville, MO)
Elroy Cober (Agric. & Agri-Food Canada, Ottowa, ON)
David Walker (USDA-ARS, Urbana, IL)
Vince Pantalone (Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN)
Rouf Mian (USDA-ARS, Wooster, OH)
Jim Narvel (Monsanto Co., Galena, MD)
David Sleper (new member; Univ. of Missouri - Columbia, MO)
Bill Schapaugh (new member; Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS)
Randy Nelson (ex-officio; USDA-ARS, Urbana, IL)
David Grant (ex-officio; USDA-ARS, Ames, IA)
Cases reviewed by the SGC in 2006 and Topics of Discussion
1. The SGC approved confirmation status for the QTL cqSDA-001 at the request of Brian Diers.
2. Proposals and questions from David Lightfoot that were considered by the SGC:
(a) Adoption of notation for SSRs based on BAC end sequences, as outlined in a manuscript that he had submitted
(b) Renaming of existing BARC (Beltsville Agric. Res. Center) 'Satt' markers to 'Saat' due to problem that 'Satt' and 'Sat_' sound similar.
- The SGC decided that Dr. Lightfoot and his colleagues should be able to name their own SSRs as they choose, but that changing the name of the BARC markers from Satt to Saat would cause unacceptable confusion in the literature and among researchers already accustomed to the original names.
(c) Question about whether it would be necessary to rename all of the old qRfs1 to qRfs10 QTL to qSDS-001 to qSDS-010, and if so whether the names would be changed to retain the same number, or whether there would be 'free-for-all' with the first research group to rename a QTL in the series getting the '1' position.
- The SGC decision was that the confirmed QTL should be renamed and renumbered in the order in which they are approved as confirmed by the Soybean Genetics Committee. Multiple confirmed QTL in the same paper should be named with consecutive three-digit identifiers.
3. Confirmed QTLs (David Grant)
- No list exists of confirmed (cq) QTL. Suggestion that these need to be listed in a database at the SoyBase/Soybean Breeder's Toolbox website.
- Rationale for requirement that at least one parent from the original cross in which a QTL was mapped be used in the confirmation population cross: Many genes exist as paralogues in a series.
- The common-parent requirement above is the reason that the request by David Lightfoot to grant 'cq' status to some QTL mapped by his group at Southern Illinois University was not approved.
- A suggestion was made to ask Roger Boerma for his list of confirmed QTL.
- Another suggestion was made to compile an annual report to the SGC on recently accepted cqQTL.
4. A motion was made and passed to send a letter annually to editors of journals commonly targeted by soybean breeders and geneticists to inform them of the existence and function of the Soybean Genetics Committee, and to request that they encourage authors proposing new names for genes or QTL to consult with the SGC for approval.
- A request was made for David Grant to send David Walker a list of the journals that soybean QTL are most commonly reported in, and for the latter to send letters to journal editors.
5. A proposal had been made for the Soybean Genetics Committee to consider changing the name of the committee to the 'Soybean Genetics and Genomics Committee' or something similar to reflect the increasing surge in biotechnology and genomics research. A suggestion was made to form a subcommittee to consider such a change in name and possibly in the duties of the committee.
(The eventual outcome of discussions regarding this question was a majority vote to keep the name 'Soybean Genetics Committee'. The rationale for this was that a majority of the SGC members considered genomics to be an area of genetics rather than an independent area of research.)